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USA Soccer thread
- Thread starter Fk_Pitt
- Start date
I only got to watch the last 20 minutes of the game because I thought it started later. I did see the lineup pregame on the internet and immediately knew we were in trouble. I have no idea why Berhalter started an MLS team to play against another MLS team. I thought he was basically conceding the game, praying for a point, and putting all his eggs on the Costa Rica game.
BTW, Joe, how do I access those tickets? I think you have to download them under the glare of the midnight moon with top secret code which changes every 5 seconds.
BTW, Joe, how do I access those tickets? I think you have to download them under the glare of the midnight moon with top secret code which changes every 5 seconds.
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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I don't understand Lletget and to a lesser extent Arriola. Those guys are very average MLS players
I would imagine that if you have something like Google Pay it would be easy. As an old person, I refuse to store anything with access to my bank account on my cell phone. There are too many times these big companies get hacked and people's information gets stolen for me to put any trust in it.
The "funny" thing for me is that literally every time I try to log into my account it tells me that my password is wrong. So I change it, and then the next time I try to log in with the new password it tells me it's wrong again. But sometimes, when I start to change my password all the sudden the old password works and I am logged in. It might not be the worst app ever designed, but it certainly has to be on the list.
I like the Miles Robinson - Walker Zimmerman central back pairing.
I think it's hilarious that a thoroughly mediocre player in Arriola is the player that Berhalter has played the most. Fewer minutes for Arriola, Lletget, Roldan and Zardes. Acosta has a role, but it should be as a sub.
More minutes for Pulisic!
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anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a
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That is a solid combo. I really wish Aaron Long hadn't torn his achilles because he was very steady. Him and Miles Robinson would be a rock back there.
Those 4 that you mentioned should never see the field for a meaningful national team game. Friendlies, Nations League and Gold Cup sure...but World Cup quallies...No Way Jose.
Acosta has earned his stripes and way onto the team. Good role player and solid guy to clog up the middle with defense. I didn't get a chance to see them game cause I'm too cheap to pay for Paramount + just to watch a few away quallies, but I heard he played very poorly. I wouldn't write him off though.
Berhalter is a turd. He easily could have started Pepi, Aaronsen and Adams. No rule that says they'd have to play all 90 either. Start them, get 65-70 and sub.
I liked what he was giving the team before he got hurt as well.
He is clearly saving all the good players to play the full 90 tomorrow night when SMF and I are in the house!
Thank you, Gregg Berhalter!
Well, I would have told him to play your best players against Panama and not your B team because you better be able to beat a bad Costa Rica at home with whoever you trot out there. Don't worry about me. I just want to see this team in the WC
Joe and SMF right now.
I was going to take him to Mellow Mushroom before the game but he ruined that with another post. Now he's trying to get back on my good side.
There was a point I forgot to make earlier. It’s done and over with right now, but you mentioned Yedlin. I was always a Yedlin fan. Akron player, New Castle United, etc. he has real pedigree. But I kinda feel he’s on the downside now so I was ok with Shaq Moore and actually predicted Moore was going to play. But in hindsight, why then even roster Yedlin if you’re not going to play him on the road?
that said, we didnt lose because of the right back position. We lost because Berhalter made 6 other changes to a lineup that dominated a few days earlier. Maybe it’s Monday morning QBing, but those players are all young and can play multiple games. No reason Pepi couldn’t have started and played 60 minutes and then turn around and play tonight.
I was impressed with Weah's speed live. He has his cousin's speed (and probably his hands also).
Aaronson also impressed me. I thought Musah played well. McKennie was pretty poor I thought.
How was the stadium? I am figuring you’ll be posting a thread on the football board about it as it relates to Pitt football…but I figured I’d ask here.
I've been in countless stadiums so none really impress me anymore. I mean it was nice and all that but I wasn't blown away or anything. Seemed like a good size for MLS. I'd say if you're like me visiting a Columbus soccer stadium for the first time you'd think "well this is nice" but if you are a Crew fan who used to go to games in Ohio Stadium and their old stadium, you'd think it was incredible.
I liked how it was close to their Arena district. I thought it was in a different section of the city. I parked by the arena and walked maybe 10 blocks to the stadium.
I cant believe they played this game in North Jersey last time where the crowd was 80% Costa Rica fans. There may have been 500 CR fans. Certainly no more than 1000.
This was only the 3rd US game that I've been to and all 3 times the crowd never sat down. I mean you kinda cant. People knock soccer but the game can change at literally any second. As a fan, you really can't relax between plays or timeouts. However, besides the Supporters, no other fans were chanting or making noise or anything like that so I wouldn't have gotten the sense that it was terribly intimidating
The original shot wasn't on frame. The ball hit the post, then the goalies back, then the post again, and then went into the net.
See I didn’t see it that way from the angle I saw. Maybe you saw a better angle. I rewound it and scrubbed at it a dozen times and I still can’t tell. So c’mon…give the kid the goal.
The funny thing is that from my perspective the Supporers section wasn't really all that loud at all, and by far the loudest part of the section was the continual drum beat and not the actual fan chants, and that by far the loudest cheers/chants of the evening started in places in the stadium other than the North End Zone. By far, the loudest "U-S-A!" chant of the night actually started in the South End Zone.
Overall I thought it was a pretty nice stadium. I walked around a little before the game and it seems like there wouldn't be a bad seat in the building. That place is a huge improvement over the old Columbus stadium, which was more utilitarian than designed to be a nice place to watch a game.
Oh, yeah, one other "non-game" related thing. That PA guy they had on in the pregame and at halftime is a simpleton. First of all, he was actually awful on the mic when he was ad libbing, which is kind of the most important part of the whole job. And then when he is trying to get the crowd to do a "U-S-A" chant he couldn't even keep time with the fake drum beat that they had going on to keep the crowd in time. I would imagine that fan selected at random as they walked through the gates could have done as good a job as that guy did.
If you watch the ESPN FC highlights on YouTube you can see that it hit the post first. Look at about the 3:10 or so mark of this video:
I thought Aaronson was the best player on the field. He was everywhere. Played on both the right and the left and no matter where he was the ball seemed to find him. And he never stops running. If the Weah shot that went down as an own goal didn't spin back into the net after it hit the goalies back it was Aaronson who kept running on the play and was there at the back post ready to knock it in if it hadn't snuck across the line before he got there.
What am I missing? The initial shot was on frame, hit the keeper, then the post. Even if it didn’t, it’s not clear it and not the prototypical own goal. He deserves the goal in my eyes.
What do you do vs Mexico? He deserves to be on the field. Do you put Pulisic at the #10?
I didn't think the Supporters Section was very loud either but I don't know what to compare it to.
The mic guy seemed like a tool but I thought he was a little entertaining. Him chanting USA 20 times was way overkill.
How bout DJ Amy Robbins? What was up with that? She seemed like a 42 year old soccer mom. First of all, you at least have to change your name, change your look, do something. I think she came straight from a PTA meeting.
I also wanted to point out something about the Mexico - El Salvador game last night. I watched the last 20 or so minutes on CBSSN this morning on replay. We always look at these things from a US perspective and we see the way that the US players get treated in some of these road venues, well the Mexico players got the same thing last night in El Salvador. Their players were continually being pelted with water bottles, especially the goalie, especially whenever El Salvador had the ball in an attacking position. And while I was watching the ref didn't do anything at all to stop it. Didn't stop the game, didn't have an announcement made to the crowd to try to get them to stop, didn't threaten to clear the building, just continued to allow fans to throw things at the Mexican players.
Mexico's second goal came on a PK in stoppage time. When the player was running up to take the kick people were throwing bottles in an effort to distract him. Which obviously didn't work. And the odd thing is that no one seem to care that there were all these bottles laying on the field while the game was going on. No one ever came out to clear them off, and none of the players did anything about them other than maybe kick one out of the way if it got in their way. If I were the Mexican goalie I would have been trying to get them off the field when play was at the other end, just on the off chance that a ball would hit one of them and take a funny bounce into the goal, but he didn't seem to care at all (other than I am sure that he cared that none of them hit him in the first place). By the end of the game there were literally dozens of bottles in the Mexican penalty area, and no one seem to think anything of it.
Mexico's second goal came on a PK in stoppage time. When the player was running up to take the kick people were throwing bottles in an effort to distract him. Which obviously didn't work. And the odd thing is that no one seem to care that there were all these bottles laying on the field while the game was going on. No one ever came out to clear them off, and none of the players did anything about them other than maybe kick one out of the way if it got in their way. If I were the Mexican goalie I would have been trying to get them off the field when play was at the other end, just on the off chance that a ball would hit one of them and take a funny bounce into the goal, but he didn't seem to care at all (other than I am sure that he cared that none of them hit him in the first place). By the end of the game there were literally dozens of bottles in the Mexican penalty area, and no one seem to think anything of it.
The initial shot hit the post, and then it hit the goalies back, and then it hit the post again, and then it spun in. By definition, it's an own goal because the original shot hit the post and came back out.
However, this is CONCACAF, and officially they didn't give the Panama goal on Sunday night as an own goal, even though it obviously came of Zardes' head and I didn't see any replays at all that showed that the Panamanian player touched it at all. If they can give that goal to Godoy there is no reason that they shouldn't give a goal like the one last night to Weah.
I listened to the post game on the SXM soccer channel on the way home last night and they were talking about this. If everyone is healthy which guys who played last night sit if you want to get Pulisic and Reyna into the lineup? I think that you have to change the formation to try to get your best players onto the field. I think I'd go with something more like a 4-2-3-1, something like this:
Turner
Dest - Miles Robinson - Brooks (he'd work out better against Mexico's physical forwards, against Jamaica I might go with Richards) - Antonee Robinson
Adams - McKennie
Reyna - Pulisic - Aaronson
Pepi
Edited to add, Zimmerman would be a fine option against Mexico if you don't want to put Brooks in.
That’s our best lineup. I just prefer Pulisic out in space. But I think your lineup is exactly what we see vs Mexico…provided Reyna is back (and Pulisic too).
That's something that doesn't really get talked about. Everyone talks about the US missing a true number nine to play up top (let's hope Pepi turns out to be that guy), but the US also doesn't really have a true number 10 either. They have a lot of guys, Pulisic, Aaronson, Weah, Reyna, etc, who are better on the wing in space than they are in the middle where things are tighter, and a bunch of guys who are better deeper in the field rather than being an offensive creator, like Adams and McKennie.
I wonder if Reyna can turn into that guy for the US? I haven't watch him a lot for Dortmund this year. Is he always playing on the wing for them or does he sometimes play more centrally?
Agree though I'm not sure I want to see Brooks anymore.
Antonee Robinson over Yedlin seems correct, which is a weird though because that's a Championship fullback over a Premier League one.
I don’t ever get to see them play. I only see the highlights of the 2 goals Erling Haaland scores every week. Occasionally I’ll see a highlight that has Reyna either drifting inside or playing inside…but I’m pretty sure he’s normally out on the right. And I’m not sure he’s near ready physically to play the #10 in Concacaf.
Well Robinson is a natural left back and Yedlin is a natural right back, so there is that.
But the main point here is that I must have missed it when Galatasary joined the Premier League. That's a long way to go for the road team each week!
That would be the biggest worry right now, that he'd get absolutely destroyed physically playing in a region where the refs allow way too much physical play.
